My only regret for voting for Johnson/Weld was that it wasn't Weld/Johnson. I think Johnson was hitting the ganja a little too much a couple of times, there. Weld seemed to have more of his $hit together.

Either way, I knew I didn't want either mainstream choice. So I voted my conscience. I will never hold my nose and vote "lesser of 2 evils". Evil is evil. I didn't want it. Still don't.

I almost hope Ben Sasse doesn't get over his nausea. I've admired him since the first time I heard him speak in Congress. Not sure he's near high enough profile to give a 3rd party any traction at all, but I'd like to see him try.

I'm going recruiting.....I'm sure that critical mass would be unimaginable number of very big names, but let's give it a go....start with Sasse, Paul, McMullin, Lieberman, the Kochs, Kasich, Condy Rice, maybe even Bloomberg - not towards top of my list, but will bring a lot of media attention....who else?

It is my understanding that Rank Choice only works for multi seat ballots.The Presidency is a single seat, so ranking your 2nd or 3rd choice won't matter unless your 1st choice is either elected or eliminated. In other words, you guy either won or lost before your 2nd vote even gets counted.

CSPAN had a guy on this morning from 'Unite America'...they're dedicated to getting 'Independent' candidates elected to office. It initially sounded like they dovetail with my new movement. But the more, I listened, the more I was not so sure. They also are motivated by disgust for the two parties that are both mostly about power and domination of the other.

I think that subtle differences are critical, however. They seem to believe that a groundswell of independents in Washington would upset the Dem/GOP swampy applecart. The idea that independents should be united strikes me strange. I think they have a fundamental flaw in highlighting 'independent' in their mission. I think Frank's right that we need a third party to assert any power and have a hope of being financially viable. Unite America and I probably target the same prospective 'politicians', but I can't see a movement gaining any momentum unless they can come together with a party, name, slogans, banner, etc. Seems that goes against being independent. I maybe picking nits, but I need to learn more about these guys before getting behind them

Tail, I agree that it would probably work better at the state level, but it could work for the presidential elections too. The way it should work is if a third-party candidate receives 15% of first place votes, then that should be enough to get them on the “big stage” as Frank put it...(government funding, debates, etc.).

With RCV, people who live in swing states can vote for a third-party/independent candidate without fear of wasting their vote, or possibly spoiling the election. I think if you take those two things out of the equation then you will see more third-party/independent votes. This in theory, should force the major parties to come and get votes instead of simply taking them for granted. Or push them out of office all together...

Will it fix everything? Probably not. But if we truly want to get away from the two-party sham without having to pass major election reforms, then RCV is a very good start IMO.

In UK, a bunch of members of parliament from the left quit their party over Brexit and are part of an independent 'party' (not sure it's an actual party yet.) And some from right quit May's conservative party and sort of joined up with the other independents. Not sure this is any bigger than short term Brexit posturing, but those quitting their parties are sounding like it could be....the Labour folks say their party is getting too extreme...the Conservatives say their's is too extreme.

I cant help but think that just maybe the partisanship here might actually work in favor of getting us to a more centrist coalition in our government, leading to defections from both side....probably wishful thinking....our parties are incredibly powerful, still...but I'm hopeful

In UK, a bunch of members of parliament from the left quit their party over Brexit and are part of an independent 'party' (not sure it's an actual party yet.) And some from right quit May's conservative party and sort of joined up with the other independents. Not sure this is any bigger than short term Brexit posturing, but those quitting their parties are sounding like it could be....the Labour folks say their party is getting too extreme...the Conservatives say their's is too extreme.

I cant help but think that just maybe the partisanship here might actually work in favor of getting us to a more centrist coalition in our government, leading to defections from both side....probably wishful thinking....our parties are incredibly powerful, still...but I'm hopeful

This is good in theory.But what if a viable third party emerges from one of the extremes, like the Green Party?

Or if a party gets split.It seems like the Democrats are on the verge of splitting to a Socialist Democrat party. And it's not even getting attention.Could you imagine if the GOP were splintering into a Fascist Republican party?

I suspect the gravity of the current two party system would prevent one side from breaking away without it happening simultaneously in the other. Feinstein and Pelosi and Schumer might roll their eyes at the children, but they aren't going to disown them if it means they hand over the keys to the Beamer to Trump and McConnell.

Watched Howard Schultz town hall last night. He was short on specifics, but nothing immediately disqualifying to me.

I'm inclined to give serious consideration to anyone running for national office that isn't R or D. I won't vote for someone who I would not want in the office, but Schultz is worth more buzz than he's getting, IMO.

Watched Howard Schultz town hall last night. He was short on specifics, but nothing immediately disqualifying to me.

I'm inclined to give serious consideration to anyone running for national office that isn't R or D. I won't vote for someone who I would not want in the office, but Schultz is worth more buzz than he's getting, IMO.